BRAVE bank worker Mark Proctor has been reunited with the frail whippet he wrenched from the jaws of death.

The 22-year-old prised the defenceless dog from the mouth of a savage stray rottweiler.

Without his action and that of several passers-by, five-year-old Libby could have died.

Mark, a cashier at the Stoke branch of Barclays bank in Walsgrave Road, leaped into action last Wednesday when he heard cries of alarm.

Libby was being walked by her owner, Andrea Woolley, in Brays Lane, near the junction with Walsgrave Road, when the attack took place.

Mark, of Hurst Road, Longford, said: "I was behind the counter when I heard the most high-pitched scream.

"I thought the lady was getting beaten up, so I looked out of the window and I saw this lady lying on the floor. That's when I knew something was wrong.

"I saw the large dog had the smaller dog's head in his mouth and I thought, 'It's going to need some help,' and I could see the woman was distressed."

It took about seven road workers and passers-by to tackle the rottweiler but it was not until Mark intervened that Libby could walk free.

But even then Andrea, a Terrence Higgins Trust worker, of Stepney Road, Stoke, feared her shaken dog would not survive the unprovoked mauling.

The dog was taken to the Veterinary Centre, in Cheylesmore, where she was given stitches to a gash in her neck and kept overnight.

Mark, who himself owns three Jack Russell dogs, says he was more concerned about the woman's safety at the time, but thought nothing of diving his bare hands into the rottweiler's jaw to set the whippet free.

He credits his instinctive reaction to the fact that he has always been around dogs.

He said: "The rottweiler seemed to come out of nowhere and it did cross my mind that it [the dog being attacked] could have been one of my dogs."

Grateful Andrea said no words could express how thankful she was for Mark's act of heroism that day.

She said: "Without Mark, Libby would not have survived.

"He is my little hero, a star as far as I'm concerned.

"It was so brave and not everyone would just do that. He is amazing. I couldn't thank him enough."

As a token of her gratitude she presented Mark with £50 of Next and Tesco vouchers.

* The rottweiler was captured after the attack by an off-duty policemen and taken to a pound until its owner could be traced.

It's understood that inquiries are still going on and a decision on the rottweiler's fate has not yet been taken.